Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Pros:

• Great diverse Gameplay
• Useful companions
• Great graphics, voice acting, animation
• Tons of customisation
• Interesting plot twist (that makes sense)

Cons:

• Tons of padding in campaign
• Open world is kinda lifeless
• Limited variation in missions
• Boring main villain
• Most boss fights aren't that great
• Lack of MGS quirkiness and heart
• Online is an afterthought

Verdict: Tons and tons of reviews give this a 10/10, greatest game of all time. Overrated IMO thou still an enjoyable game, but with just allot of unnecessary padding and lack of key elements that made the other MGS games great.

7.5/10

After 7 years, clearing it again, it is without a doubt that this open-world stealth game represents the highest level in the genre. Even today, the graphics quality enhanced by the Fox Engine never goes out of style. While one can still count the polygons when looking at circular objects such as tires, the overall feel of sneaking and combat is excellent, surpassing even that of Ghost Recon: Wildlands. The Mother Base and fulton system create a perfect positive feedback loop. Kojima's selection of 80s classic songs, along with his reflections on war and language, provide new insights and discoveries upon revisiting the game.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" (2015) is truly an amazing experience. Hands down this is one of the most addictive games i have played in a very long while. It has tons of action, sneaking, hiding, crouching and etc. Controls are amazing, it is not even boring to run trough the open world maps on your foot. Graphics are gorgeous, game play is amazing. Story was good, but since the only Metal Gear game i have played before was 1st part (back in 1998), i didn't understood lots of characters, but that is not a problem, there are plenty of greatly voiced tapes which you can listen even during missions which are informative. I liked the extraction thing - genius. Mother base was also very cool thing, but i have 1 complaint. After collecting lots of stuff to mother base like gun turrets, emplacement, tanks guns and so on, it kinda don't have any real payoff at mother base except that security unit gets more points. but that is it, it kinda useless to bring whole stuff up there - or maybe i'm wrong but at this point i'm completed 64% of game - i finished main story and i'm at about 82% of side missions but still there was no effect of bringing all stuff to mother base except soldiers. Anyway that is a minor complain. because everything else in this game rocks.

Overall, whether you have played just one Metal Gear Solid game before or none, The Phantom Pain" is a must play to everyone, because everyone will find here something he will love. Great game, not the best ever, but great one.

I wouldn't try to review this masterpiece in a written review, because I can't do it proper justice and out of fear of leaving something behind. But in light of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta, I finally decided to quickly write up a few sentences here as a thank you note to the developers and to further augment the game's aggregate score.

The uniqueness, creativity and smoothness of the gameplay is something I've never seen before. The controls are smooth user friendly, even arcadey. Every input feels tight and precise with 0 delays.

The game offers an unsurpassed sense of freedom in how you approach each mission and any single situation can be changed on a dime.

The enemy humanoid AI is the best I have ever witnessed in a game thus far and will tear you apart remorselessly if you think you can exploit it.

Both all-guns-blazing action and stealth are so much fun that getting caught doesn't feel like a punishment, although the game encourages you to take the stealthy approach and you'll be rewarded for it.

Be warned the main story is heavy on cutscenes and dialogue, seeing as it is a Kojima game you should be expecting that anyways.

The game offers 2 multiplayer modes. A single-multiplayer mode called F. O. B.s where you infiltrate other players Forward Operating Bases and a more traditional multiplayer mode, branded Metal Gear Online which has all the archetypal Call of Duty style modes, deathmatch, capture the flag and more. Both modes offer a plethora of ranking and biweekly events/challenges that you can participate. I have spent 75% of my playtime in FOBs. They are that good (and if you abhor multiplayer you should give this one a try seriously because it's not what you think) and so long as Konami maintains its servers I'll keep on playing at least on a weekly basis.

A technical marvel for the time it was released and continues on to this date. The game engine used to develop it, the Fox Engine, is the single most optimized 3d engine I have ever experienced. If you're on an NVidia GPU there are some graphical settings you can tweak to enhance them still. Suffice to say it runs good, buttery smooth amazingly good.

There is also slight modding support which can be leveraged if you're on a not-potato PC to give an extra oomph to the otherwise top-notch gameplay. I wouldn't bother with it though unless I have completed a full run of the main story.

The sound design is immaculate. The score is great albeit a step down from the first MGS trilogy imo.

An immensely deep & replayable game from start to finish. It is as challenging as it is rewarding. A massive game of epic proportions, a game for the ages. A Hideo Kojima game.

Rating: 10-/10 - Masterpiece.

Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain is the penultimate journey in Hideo Kojima's classic saga; even though it's a prequel there is a good deal of surprises to be found in the story. The gameplay is nothing short of phenomenal and there's so much attention to detail graphically and narratively speaking.

The Phantom Pain is a gaming experience to be remembered for generations to come. Its immersion for the players is unsurpassed, its atmosphere phenomenal, its story a bit sparse yet massive in scope and ambition. Hideo Kojima has made the 2001: A Space Odyssey of video games right here. There's endless subtexts throughout, visually and script-based, and that's excluding the ridiculously tense and terrifying start of the game, where you're at a hospital in Cyprus, trying to escape certain death.

If you haven't played the game yet, please do so, and play the 'Day One Edition' on the PS4: the definitive version of this modern masterpiece.